WTF, Why can't we do digital rental/trials of all retail games?

Seriously why the hell not?

First tidbit that sets this off. I recently bought 3m of psn+ to try some services out. One of the most craziest ones offered is 1 hour trials of full retail PS3 games (but limited selection). Once the 1 hour is up you can purchase the game instantly from your ps3, or just delete the files and be done with it. Saves made during the trial will work on the disc version (if you prefer to go that route).

Seriously, why the hell can't we have this on the entire library? It's so much better then even demos as it's the full game and not some cross section that gimps on features. Only real downside is sadly having to download a full retail game (most of the ones currently on offer are about 6gb+). Plus even with the somewhat higher cost/nature of digital purchases, It does make it more tempting for me to just select purchase after the trial is up (no waiting till I can buy a copy or waiting for a copy to arrive by mail).

:shrug:

 

Because while you may have amazing fast internet.

there are still parts of the US that do not.

 

I don't really like the idea simply because it's another nail in the real physical media coffin :crying: Unless all they made available was the 1 hour demo then you had to buy the actual disc.

Yakumo

 

I don't see why it has to be. Retail atm still gets an advantage for being cheaper at times then digital. I still would also find it hard to cough up $60 for digital game (when most games will drop from $60 to $40 in a month at retail). Yet with a service like this i'm more likely to give a game a shot and buy it then never playing it at all. Again since the saves are standard Ps3 saves, you can give the trial a go and if you like it run out and get the disc version instead. It's up to the end user to choose.

LoL, I live in Canada. Our Inet is crap and we get charged a crap ton in bandwidth fees.

 

I was trying to remember what the fault with Canada's internet was thanks for reminding me.

But yeah last I knew at least 1/4th of the US still uses Dial up or inadequate internet mostly in the south and mid west.

 

I don't think it matters what we think (physical cheaper than digital) but more what the greedy suits want. Think about it. If all physical media was stopped with digital media taking it's place the suits would be making far more. No packing costs, no shipping costs, no storage costs and so on. Sure, a few may stop buying games but not enough to damage sales.

Digital sales only stinks IMO but if gaming does go this way it's the end of our hobby. I'd love to have real discs of my Xbox Live arcade titles. I would be able to play them 20 years down the road as long as I had the hardware. Even if I lost my copy I could always find another. With Digital Downloads all that is gone once the service is taken down and I've lost my USB stick or HD with the games on.

Yakumo

 

I would NEVER buy a digital download if there is a physical copy available, besides if the physical copy is more affordable then what's the excuse of "digital means consumers can get the full game at a cheaper price".

As others have mentioned full games are way over 4GB, here in Australia some people have data limits others I know nearly buy 4 games a month. 20GB on just game downloads is quite a bit for some data plans here. I couldn't think of how long it would take to download if people have unstable connections.

 

I try to not buy digital but sometimes it is unavoidable.

With Batman Arkham City it is apparent that something must be done.

 

I also live in Canada and we now have bandwidth limits. I know that when I see a 6gig download, I have to limit the internet I will use for the next 3-4 days to make up for it.

Also with many games today, the first hour is not a good indication of the final game. I find with many games the first hour is movies and tutorials so I spend more time reading and watching than actually playing and the little bit I do get to play is with a learning curve so I play quite poorly. It really sucks for me because I don't often have more than an hour to play at one time. It makes it really hard to give new games a try. Sometimes I really miss the good old days, 2-3 minutes in and you knew exactly what the game was and how much fun it's going to be.

 

Count me as another one against this DLC and digital download BS. You can also add pre-order bonuses to the list as well. It used to be that DLC was just little bonus but now developers are taking out larger and larger chunks of stuff that should be in the game just to charge for it or fuck over the second hand market.

APE mentioning Batman: Arkham City is a perfect example. The Catwoman content shouldn't need a code to unlock it but the developers decided to do that anyways just to screw the people who buy it used. We are not talking about some little extras here either. This is a decent sized part of the game and without it there are plotholes. I guess they just figure that it "Sucks to be you" if for some reason you can't access it.

Developers bitch all the time about piracy and lost profits but when they decide to retaliate by punishing and screwing over the folks that play by the rules any sympathy I have tends to vanish.

 

You can also add Deus EX to the bullshit code list. There are items and a complete mission missing if you don't have the DLC codes even though references to the weapons remain and a cut scene to the missing level still plays. Luckily for me I bought the Asian version used and the codes still worked. Probably because the Japanese guy who bought it originally couldn't figure out how to get the codes to work (you need a UK or Asian 360 account to use them).

Yakumo

 

I believe the main reason you don't have demos for all PS3 games is Sony's messed up pricing system. PSN may be free but it charges the publishers for each mb downloaded. I think that's true even for full games. I don't understand though why Sony couldn't ignore the charges for it's plus users. PSN plus would then be on par with Live gold. Then again when does Sony make intelligent decisions.

I'm sure contracts also prevent all full games from showing up on PSN. This is basically a repeat of the music industry 10 years ago.

I think though in the long run digital distribution is going to hurt the consumer. The ISPs, distributors (Sony, MS, Apple, etc), and publishers are looking at this transition as a way to gain more profitability. The only way to gain more profitably to either cut costs or increase revenue (charge more.)

 

I'd rather they charged more. At least then there would still be a 2nd hand market and in 20 years we could all still play the games for sure.

Yakumo

 

Same here. When i found out Wipeout HD Fury was going to be released in Blu-ray, i made sure i would get one. I know it will sound a bit dumb, but i kind of feel proud having the physical copy instead of the digital one.

 

Hackers will find away to make them playable

 

Steam does free weekends of games, often before expansions/addons come out, all the time. I'm sure it sells them boatloads of copies.

 

If all games were digital downloads, would there still be stores? When I buy a game I haven't already set my mind on, I go to the local store to see if I can be swayed.

 

Business model dude, games are getting shorter and shorter, I beated Portal2 in one night and Vanquish in a matter of hours (vanquished! lol)

Back then renting a game was good business because any crap cart was $60 (in 1990s dollars) and beating a game took days in most cases, so you ended up renting the same game several times.

I could've rented half of the games on my X360 instead of buying them, specially the 1/5th which I've never played again.

Companies know this, which is why they'll rather go for the freemium or free-to-play way of giving you a crippled version for free and making you pay for all the stuff they took from the game

 

You finished Vanquish in a few hours? I find that hard to believe. Were you playing on easy? Did you just rush right through the game?

I'm now playing Shadows of the Damned. many so called reviews said the game could be beaten in 8 hours on your first play through. BULL SHIT! Yeah, maybe if you rush right through it on easy missing pretty much all the game has to offer. The reviews also said it was impossible to collect enough red crystals to power up weapons. Funny that. I have fully powered up my energy and 2 weapons so far. The game also gets better the more you play. Strange that most of the reviews said it got worse. Hmmmm.

Yakumo

 

I never understood the point of rushing through a game to finish it as quickly as possible. I like to savor a game by taking my time to go through it and enjoying it. If it's a crap game, then I won't play it for long.